School's Out
by theimpossiblegirl39
Summary: I used be afraid of the monsters under my bed. We're all afraid of the Unknown. But now I'm not afraid anymore, because I've learned what's out there. Monsters don't just live in your imagination. They're real. First part of the "Oh The Places You'll Go" series.
1. Prologue

When I was younger, I used to be afraid of the monsters under my bed. But, hey,

isn't every kid? Aren't we all afraid of the shadows that pass our windows, the

strange creaking in the attic, the closet door that slowly opens on its own at

some point? Its a natural emotion that's engraved into our heads from birth,

with stories of ghosts, goblins, and ghouls. Even on Halloween, a holiday in

which every autumn we like to scare the bejeezus out of kids who go door to door

looking for free candy. So it becomes unavoidable that fear has a constant

presence in our lives.

When you grow up, that fear doesn't go away. Sure,

you can sleep the night away without worrying about the creepy crawlies that

will eat you while you slumber, but the fear is still there, just different.

For example, I have an AP US test next week, and I'm scared I'll fail. My mom

is afraid of rare disease, and my dad dislikes spiders. What do all of those

things have in common? They are "The Unknown". People are afraid of things that

they don't understand or that are different to things they are comfortable with.

This phenomenon is the root cause of discrimination and hate. It drives kids to

spend nights studying and not sleeping. It drives scientists to perform

experiments and seek out answers to difficult questions. And it's the reason

that as a child, you hide under the covers and keep a flashlight under your

pillow.

But what if you had a close encounter with one of these "Unknowns"?

What if they things that go bump in the night were real? How would you survive?

Would you run, or would you stand and fight? It all really depends on how scared

you are I suppose. But let me tell you, nothing can prepare you for the

impossible. Bigfoot, The Yeti, and the Loch Ness Monster. They aren't real. Or

are they? How do you know? Where's the proof? Have you ever seen one? Or

experienced something you couldn't explain? Are you afraid of the dark?

You

should be.

Because the monsters are real, but they aren't under your

bed.

They're everywhere.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

It all started on my fifth week of junior year. I was just getting settled into high school again, after being out on summer break for two months. The day school starts is always a tragic occurrence, losing one's limited freedom to homework, overbearing teachers, and somewhat ridiculous rules and regulations. But once I get acclimated, I find I enjoy it; the structure, _some_ of the people, and busy work to keep from being too bored. It's pretty routine each year. Eight long periods, the occasional boring lunch, faking participation in gym. Until this week.

"It's not alright!"

From my locker, I hear Mandy Patterson, head Cheerleader and Student Class President, fiercely snapping at Oliver Sythe, star football player and professional idiot. Curious as what she could be arguing with him about, I leant closer to hear. As head journalist of the school newspaper, I can be snoopy like that.

"She didn't deserve it. Dweeb or not."

"Mandy, this was months ago. People already forgot about it. No one will ask any questions."

"No Olly, they haven't forgotten. I was talking to Beth and her parents said the police came to ask them questions. They were neighbors. That means they haven't forgotten, and they'll probably find out."

"They aren't gonna find out Mandy. I'm done with this conversation. I have to meet Jamie before Trig." Oliver turned on his heel and stormed off, leaving Mandy huffing and puffing on her own.

I was thoroughly confused. I couldn't understand what kind of trouble they would be in that warranted police interference. The two of them were bullies, but most of what they did was virtually harmless, and nothing ever illegal. They often dealt out snide remarks, or unfulfilled threats. Everyone knew they were full of it.

I did not have much time to contemplate it, because then the bell rang. I had to go to class. Which is where the weird started.

My first period, Legal Issues, sucked. Really sucked. But today, we had a different teacher. He entered the classroom, long brown hair nearly to his shoulders, and really tall.

"Hello class. My name is Mr. Manzarek. Mrs. Flint apparently, in a burst of good luck, won the lottery, and is taking an extended vacation. So, in the interim, I will be your Legal Issues teacher."

Won the lottery? Seriously? Yeah, that certainly doesn't sound fishy at all.

As it turned out, Mr. Manzarek knew quite a lot about law, and was able to get through the lesson absolutely fine. When the bell rang, I was quick to jump up and leave. I was bored and needed to pee desperately. Upon entering the bathroom, I saw all three stalls were occupied and there was about twelve people on line. Sighing to myself, I decided to try the bathroom on the second floor. Most likely, no one would be there. Despite being perfectly functioning, the bathroom wasn't used by many people. They claimed it was too creepy because of the "Incident".

The "Incident" happened two years, when I was a freshman. Jenny More, a new student and fellow freshman, left her Spanish class during sixth period to use the upstairs bathroom. When she didn't return after nearly twenty minutes, she sent then classmate Mandy Patterson to check on her. Mandy came back moments later, hyperventilating and screaming incoherently. Eventually, the teacher was able to calm her enough to ask what had freaked her out so much. The answer Mandy gave changed the school forever. Mandy had gone to the bathroom looking for Jenny. The door had been jammed shut. She had to push several times to get it to open. When it finally did, Mandy had been horrified to discover Jenny hanging from the support beam on the ceiling, noose around her neck.

Jenny's suicide was sudden and shocking, not to mention completely unexplainable. The police never found a note, and there was no indication in her recent behaviors to suggest she'd been depressed or unstable. Jenny had been a smart, sweet, polite girl. It didn't make sense.

Since the "Incident", no one really used the bathroom, with rumors about it being haunted by Jenny's ghost giving people the creeps. I have to say, I might not have believed it was haunted, but I wasn't pleased with the idea of using it. But nature calls.

I entered the bathroom slowly, it was dark and quiet. Alright, I thought, just get this done and then get out quickly. As I did my business I realized it was pretty cold. I could almost see my breath. I flushed and stepped out to wash my hands. The faucet was old fashioned, you had to push the top down and the water would come out for about ten seconds, usually leaving your hands still soapy. After attempting to wash my hands quickly before the water ran out, I turned to dry my hands on a paper towel before turning again to leave. But as I did, I noticed something move from the corner of my eye, and a soft sound. I looked and there was no one there, but the faucet was running again. It had turned on by itself. A shiver ran down my spine, and I ran from the room, suddenly feeling very strange, like someone was watching me. I went to English, and the rest of the day passed without incident. Eventually I forgot the whole thing.

Until a week later.


	3. Chapter 2

As it turned out, Mr. Manazarek wasn't the only sudden replacement in the staff. Our chief of secerity up and retired and a librarian randomly quit, both for unknown reasons, and were replaced by Mr. Morrison, and Mr. Krieger respectively. Mr. Morrison was only a few inches shorter than Mr. Manzarek, and had spiky dark blonde hair and ridiculous green eyes. He stomped around the school, calling kids out for weird things like reading too much or giving him a weird look. His deep voice made him easily recognizable, and his language was more colorful than a rainbow.

Mr. Krieger, however, was much nicer, if not stranger. He insisted on wearing a trench coat at all times, even in the library, and often would comment out loud to himself about books as though he'd been asked his opinion after having read it for the first time. His shockingly bright blue eyes juxtaposed to his dark hair made him somewhat attractive, and if he didn't talk to himself all the time and actually took off the trench coat, he might have been quite the catch. Still, the strangest part was that they were all hired at the same time after various members of the staff left without warning, and they all seemed to know each other. They stopped to talk to one another in the halls, and I saw them having a heated conversation in the library classroom during study hall. It was all very suspicious. Of course, as an aspiring journalist, I was naturally curious and decided to keep an eye on them. But any real investigation would have to wait until after Friday.

Friday night was homecoming. Homecoming is usually awful. Hot, sweaty bodies dancing awkwardly as girls in heels taller than Lady Gaga's and skirts covering basically nothing tried their best not to fall on their face. Music so loud that between the songs, your head continues to beat to the rhythm of the song and your ears can no longer hear. Obnoxious chaperone teachers and security guards that freak out if a girl gets within eight inches of a boy, because that's "too close". It was absolutely not fun. But, despite all this, people went anyway.

This year, I was assigned to write an article about the "party experience" of the dance, forcing me to go. As Friday rapidly approached, an unexplainable sense of dread was building up in my stomach. On the actual day, I felt physically sick. I didn't want to go, but that wasn't the thing that made me ill. It was this unshakable sense that something bad was going to happen. I had no idea where it came from, but it made me worry all the way to the party.

"Oh stop it Court. Nothing bad is gonna happen tonight. Except maybe Mandy and her friend wearing those awful dresses," My best friend Mikey said as we pulled up to the school. Mikey had agreed to be my date because the boy he was practically in love with was totally straight, and there were no other guys he was currently interested in. "You need to chill, like big time."

"I am chill. I'm always chill. But I don't like being here."

"It's not that bad. Someone always wipes out on the dance floor trying to dance in shoes that defy the laws of physics. It's the best part."

I sighed. He was right. I needed to stop being so nervous about the stupid dance. Little did I know, I had a good reason to be concerned.

Upon entering, I wasn't very surprised to see Mr. Morrison, Mr. Manzarek, and Mr. Kiegler standing in a corner, eyeing the dance floor and talking amongst themselves. Rolling my eyes, I lead Mikey to the dance floor. For the next two hours, we danced and interviewed other attendees about whether or not they were enjoying themselves, gathering information for my article. Finally, I decided to ask the three mysterious men themselves if they were enjoying the dance.

I walked over to where they were standing, and they seemed genuinely surprised to have been noticed, as if it were perfectly normal for them to be isolating themselves from the other teachers.

"Hi. I'm Courtney Thompson, and I'm writing an article about Homecoming for the school newspaper, and I was wondering if I could get statements from you about your experience so far."

Mr. Manzarek answered first, as he looked the least confused. "Um… I guess it's nice. I didn't really get to go to homecoming when I was in high school, so it's pretty cool to be here."

"I never went to a conventional school, and had no idea that teenagers enjoyed such hot rooms and loud music. It's very uncomfortable." Mr. Kiegler offered.

I blinked. "Okay… What about you Mr. Morrison?"

He hesitated for a moment. "I uh… I guess it's alright."

Apparently that was all I was going to get from them so I decided to put an end to it then. "Okay thank you. You guys have been very helpful." I turned and hurried away quickly back to Mikey, who was grinding some dude.

Soon it was time to crown the Homecoming Court.

And that was when all hell broke loose.

The hot, humid room suddenly became drastically colder, and the lights began flickering. A shrill scream filled the air, piercing my eardrums. Scattered red solo cups began flying from the side tables and slamming into people's faces. Next to me, Mikey took a chicken nugget to the forehead. As I ducked various flying objects, I noticed Mr. Manzarek and his two equally weird friends fending off a levitating bowl of lays potato chips looking neither the least bit shocked at the inanimate object's new abilities, nor frightened at the sudden occurrence of flying fried potatoes. It seemed as though they were unfazed by the whole thing. I didn't have much time to contemplate this thought, because as I turned and saw Mandy Patterson being dragged along the ground by an invisible force, kicking and screaming. It was quite disturbing. I ran towards her and grabbed her arm, pulling her back, but the invisible thing held on tight to her dress. Mandy was thrashing and screaming, which definitely did not help the situation.

"Courtney!"

The shout of my name caught my attention, and I glanced over to see Mr. Morrison speeding towards me, carrying a large sack. He skidded to a stop. As I watched him fling the contents of the bag at Mandy, something large smacked into the side of my head, knocking me down and causing me to smack my head on the floor. Stars clouded my vision, and as I struggled to sit up, I could already feel a headache slowly coming on. To my relief, when I looked around, there were no more flying objects and Mandy, though covered in what looked like salt, was no longer being dragged away. Instead, she was sitting and sobbing, confused and terrified from the whole ordeal. Suddenly, a blurry face swam into my line of sight, only a few inches from my own.

"Courtney, are you alright?"

Unfortunately, I only had seconds to say "No" before collapsing into darkness.


End file.
